With another successful closed beta session in the books and as a way to subtly use delay tactics to continue to give myself time to further flesh out my thoughts, I figured I’d share some tips and other things I wish I knew at the very start of the beta session.

Plus, if you didn’t know, an open beta is coming on February 9 and running through the weekend so perhaps these tips will help you stay alive a little longer when you eventually jump in.

While these tips and tricks probably won’t make you an unbeatable god, they may just mean the difference between life and death.

Below the jump, here are 8 tips that you need to know while playing For Honor:

Practice Makes Perfect
For Honor is a game that requires practice if you want to be good at it. Button mashing will get you in trouble more often than naught. Thankfully, the game has a wealth of tools to help get you into tip-top shape. Outside of the basic tutorial, I highly recommend the Advanced Tutorial which caters to the particular class you select. You’ll learn advanced moves and life saving tactics to keep you alive. Not only that, there’s a practice mode and you can always square off against the AI if you want to test things out.

Honestly, 1v1 Duels are probably the best way to really learn as it strips away all of the noise and other players. This mode, while intense, lets you focus in on only one other individual instead of worrying about being flanked by other players.

Master A Class
With a diverse roster of interesting looking heroes, I totally understand the desire to jump around and try them all. Unfortunately, this won’t really benefit you. Combat is easy to understand in For Honor, but difficult to master. Jumping around between many different classes will only serve to make things more difficult as each hero not only has their own strengths and weaknesses but their own individual moves as well. So my advice is to learn one hero really well before moving on to something else.

Button Mashing Gets You In Trouble
As I mentioned above, button mashing is not your friend. The game combats button mashers through a few different ways including counter attacks and a stamina meter which slightly drains after each attack. Simply button mashing will completely drain this meter, leaving you slow and vulnerable to be punished by an opposing player. Frankly, it’s something you want to avoid at all costs. Take things slow, read your enemy, and strike when there is an opening.

Save Your MoneyUnlike Ubisoft’s other competitive game, Rainbow Six Siege, For Honor doesn’t require players to unlock heroes before using them. When joining a match, you can select and play as anyone you want, even if certain classes have yet to be fully unlocked.

Unlocking a character simply means you can customize them with new gear, colors, emblems, and other cosmetic items. So go ahead and save your steel for something that matters. If you really like a class, you can always purchase it and start customizing when you want.

Stamina Can Make or Break a Fight
As I mentioned before, a stamina bar dictates the flow of combat more often than not. Attacks and dodging take chunks off of the meter, so missing attacks can prove fatal in the right situations. Slow things down, let your meter recharge if it’s low, and play defense when you’re in need of a quick boost. Don’t be afraid to retreat as well, no shame in that.

Draining the stamina meter completely washes the colors off the screen and makes your character sluggish. Running speed is reduced, attacking becomes much slower and easier to read, and generally, your character is a much easier target until the bar completely refills. So always be aware of how much stamina you have.

Parry, Parry, Parry!
Blocking is essential, but parrying could mean the difference between dominating or being dominated. To parry an attack, make sure to be in the correct guard stance as you normally would to block an attack. When the notification flashes red, press the heavy attack button to parry an attack if timed correctly.

So why is this important? Not only does this effectively block the attack, it staggers your opponent, giving you a greater window of opportunity to counterattack and deal major damage. It’s a high-risk, high-reward move, so if it isn’t done correctly, it’ll leave you vulnerable as if you weren’t blocking, so beware!

Don’t Ignore Minions
In the larger Dominion mode, it can be very easy to just want to focus on capturing zones and fighting enemy players. That’s a mistake however as the NPC minions are also worth your time. They’re quite easy to kill, earn you additional points and XP, and some classes even have a perk that lets them heal for killing them.

Not only that, smart players can use them as a distraction for other enemy players. Why not try fighting an enemy in the middle of a minion crowd? It may just distract your opponent giving you an advantage over them, or force them to flee due to the chaos of a crowded onslaught.

Become a Champion
It looks like For Honor has a perk system in play, letting players spend steel or real money to unlock Champion Status. Essentially, this looks to be a boost of sorts, granting you a 25% boost and giving your teammates a 10% boost in XP as well.

In the beta, activating this status cost only 2000 steel and unlocked a bunch of new emblems and icons. While the XP boost isn’t permanent, I’d imagine once the full game releases, other perks and unlocks like this will be available.